With increasing acceptance that petroleum hydrocarbon supplies are decreasing and their costs are ultimately increasing, interest has increased for developing and improving industrial microbial systems for production of chemicals and fuels. Such industrial microbial systems could completely or partially replace the use of petroleum hydrocarbons for production of certain chemicals.
Numerous chemicals are produced through such means, ranging from antibiotic and anti-malarial pharmaceutical products to fine chemicals to fuels such as ethanol. However, there is still a commercial need in modified microorganisms that are adapted to produce a chemical product having malonyl-CoA as a substrate in the microbial production pathway of that chemical product, such as but not limited to various fatty acids and fatty acid derived products.